The Age of Fable eBook

Just at this time Hercules arrived at the palace of
Admetus, and found all the inmates in great distress
for the impending loss of the devoted wife and beloved
mistress. Hercules, to whom no labor was too
arduous, resolved to attempt her rescue. He went
and lay in wait at the door of the chamber of the
dying queen, and when Death came for his prey, he
seized him and forced him to resign his victim.
Alcestis recovered, and was restored to her husband.

Milton alludes to the story of Alcestis in his Sonnet
“on his deceased wife:”

“Methought I saw my
late espoused saint
Brought
to me like Alcestis from the grave,
Whom Jove’s
great son to her glad husband gave,
Rescued from death by
force, though pale and faint.”

J. R. Lowell has chosen the “Shepherd of King
Admetus” for the subject of a short poem.
He makes that event the first introduction of poetry
to men.

“Men called him but
a shiftless youth,
In whom
no good they saw,
And yet unwittingly,
in truth,
They made
his careless words their law.

“And day by day more
holy grew
Each spot
where he had trod,
Till after-poets only
knew
Their first-born
brother was a god.”

ANTIGONE

A large proportion both of the interesting persons
and of the exalted acts of legendary Greece belongs
to the female sex. Antigone was as bright an
example of filial and sisterly fidelity as was Alcestis
of connubial devotion. She was the daughter of
Oedipus and Jocasta, who with all their descendants
were the victims of an unrelenting fate, dooming them
to destruction. OEdipus in his madness had torn
out his eyes, and was driven forth from his kingdom
Thebes, dreaded and abandoned by all men, as an object
of divine vengeance. Antigone, his daughter, alone
shared his wanderings and remained with him till he
died, and then returned to Thebes.

Her brothers, Eteocles and Polynices, had agreed to
share the kingdom between them, and reign alternately
year by year. The first year fell to the lot
of Eteocles, who, when his time expired, refused to
surrender the kingdom to his brother. Polynices
fled to Adrastus, king of Argos, who gave him his
daughter in marriage, and aided him with an army to
enforce his claim to the kingdom. This led to
the celebrated expedition of the “Seven against
Thebes,” which furnished ample materials for
the epic and tragic poets of Greece.

Amphiaraus, the brother-in-law of Adrastus, opposed
the enterprise, for he was a soothsayer, and knew
by his art that no one of the leaders except Adrastus
would live to return. But Amphiaraus, on his
marriage to Eriphyle, the king’s sister, had
agreed that whenever he and Adrastus should differ
in opinion, the decision should be left to Eriphyle.
Polynices, knowing this, gave Eriphyle the collar
of Harmonia, and thereby gained her to his interest.